Posts tagged with "Awards":

Michael Maltzan is the guest of honor at ForumFest 2013, the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Design's annual fundraising party. The event will take place this Saturday, November 9, from 6 to 10 pm at the Maltzan-designed Inner-City Arts in Downtown Los Angeles.
Maltzan studied architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design and Harvard University's Graduate School of Design before working in the offices of Machado Silvetti and Frank Gehry. In 1995 he founded Michael Maltzan Architecture (MMA). MMA's work in LA includes Regen Projects, the Billy Wilder Theater and Cafe at the UCLA Hammer Museum, the Biscuit Company Lofts, Inner City Arts, and several noted projects for Skid Row Housing Trust, including the Rainbow Apartments, the New Carver Apartments, and the upcoming Star Apartments.
Saturday's festivities will include installations by participants in the Forum's 2013 Out There Doing It Series, plus music by KCRW DJ Dan Wilcox and a silent auction. For sale at the auction are drawings by Maltzan and other local architects, including Greg Lynn, Tom Wiscombe, Scott Johnson, Doris Sung, Larry Scarpa, Michael Lehrer, Barbara Bestor, and Tim Durfee. Two photographic prints of MMA-designed buildings, by photographer Iwan Baan, will also be featured. For more information or to order tickets, visit the LA Forum website.

When an artist begins, they try to bury him with neglect.When he gains a small foothold, they try to bury him with criticism.When he becomes more established, they try to bury him with covetous disdain.When he becomes exceptionally successful, they try to bury him with dismissals as irrelevant.And finally, all else failing they try to bury him with honors!
This is how James Wines of SITE, quoting Jean Cocteau, accepted his 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum at their National Design Awards. Wines joined a 'Lifetime Achievement' group that includes Richard Saul Wurman, Bill Moggridge, Paolo Solari, the Vignelli's, Dan Kiley, and Frank Gehry.
Last night's awards program was a special one as the Museum—led by its new director, Caroline Baumann, and an indefatigable team—worked throughout the government shutdown of the least two weeks to put on a spatular gala that gave awards to designers that included Janette Sadik-Khan, Michael Sorkin, Studio Gang Architects, Paula Scher, Aidlin Darling Design, and Margie Ruddick.
These figures each asked a special commentator to introduce them. Theaster Gates presented Jeanne Gang from Chicago and Michael Kimmelman said that Michael Sorkin was the first person he spoke to when he decided to be the New York Times architecture critic. Sorkin accepted his award for "Design Mind" with a powerful tribute—as only he can—to his late friends and intellectual mentors, Lebbeus Woods and Marshall Berman.
Al Gore presented the TED Talks with an award and finally it was left to Tom Wolfe to introduce James Wines, who he said had created the "first really new architecture after modernism" in his famous Best Stores which "added nothing to the architecture" only re-arranged what was already" as in his Best 'Notch' project in suburban Sacramento, California. Wolfe claimed that Wines wanted to replace "plop art" like formal plaza sculptures by Henry Moore and Isamu Noguchi with a new form that put the art onto the architecture.
Its about time that Sorkin, who is our greatest living architecture critic to not have been awarded a Pulitzer Prize, and Wines, who is not a registered architect, to be given an award as a great architect.

Noted Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi now has a travel fellowship in her name. Jane Hall, founding member of Assemble, a Stratford, UK–based architecture and design collective, has been selected as the inaugural winner of the British Council’s Lina Bo Bardi Fellowship that will allow her to travel to Brazil this year to study Bo Bardi's work for six weeks this fall.
Hall, an architectural assistant at Studio Weave, will investigate how society, culture, and the idea of "Brazilianess" influence the country’s contemporary architectural practices. The fellowship is part of the British Council’s Transform series—a sequence of arts programs between the United Kingdom and Brazil leading up to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

California Senator Barbara Boxer has won many accolades over the years, to be sure. But none has been quite like the honor she was bestowed this month: National Asphalt Legislator of the Year, according to the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA). The group said it was particularly impressed with her role in the passage of MAP-21, the $105 billion 2012 Surface Transportation Funding Bill. NAPA Board of Directors Chairman John Keating pointed to Boxer’s ignoring of “naysayers who said a bill would never pass.”
To be fair the bill provided for billions in mass transit funding, but nonetheless Boxer has helped the state refurbish hundreds of miles of roads, and even build quite a few new ones. Not exactly a claim to fame in our transit-friendly design world. Ahem, don’t tell Elon Musk.

The winners of AIA Chicago’s Small Project Awards are on display through August 22 at 23 E. Madison St. “Not everyone needs a skyscraper,” reads the awards program’s tagline. The third annual Small Firm/Small Project Awards recognize quality in small Chicago architectural firms (nine or fewer licensed architects and interns) and small local projects. Projects were honored in four categories: Additions/Remodeling, Kitchens, New Construction, and Small Objects.

After reviewing over 60 entries from around the world, The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has selected this year’s winners of its annual Best Tall Buildings. Regional winners from Canada, China, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates have been announced, while an overall winner will be revealed at the CTBUH 12th Annual Ceremony in November. Projects are recognized for their impacts on the development of tall buildings and the urban environment, and for sustainability.
For the Americas, the winner is The Bow (Calgary, Canada) by Foster + Partners, a 780-foot-tall curved commercial tower, which curves toward the sun to capture daylight and heat. The bow-shaped design maximizes views of the Rocky Mountains. According to Juror Antony Wood, the building functions well from an environmental urbanistic perspective. Category finalists include Devon Energy Center (Oklahoma City, USA) and Tree House Residence Hall (Boston, USA).
The top tower in the Asia & Australasia region was OMA's whimsical CCTV (Beijing, China). The distorted form of the building, which operates as Beijing’s state television headquarters, is the result of complex programmatic, planning and seismic requirements. Category finalists include C&D International Tower (Xiamen, China), Park Royal on Pickering (Singapore), Pearl River Tower (Guangzhou, China), and Sliced Porosity Block (Chengdu, China).
Europe's mixed-use The Shard (London, UK) by Renzo Piano Building Workshop is another winner. The “vertical city” involves 25 floors of office space, three floors of restaurants, a 17-story hotel, 13 floors of apartments, and four observation levels. The structure rests at the core of a revitalized commercial district. Category finalists include ADAC Headquarters (Munich, Germany), New Babylon (The Hague, Netherlands), and Tour Total (Berlin, Germany).
In the Middle East & Africa, Sowwah Square (Abu Dhabi, UAE) captures a win. The complex, which encloses the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange with four office towers and a two-story retail podium, utlizes a sustainable design method. Category finalists include 6 Remez Tower (Tel Aviv, Israel) and Gate Towers (Abu Dhabi, UAE).
This year the CTBUH Board of Trustees awarded the Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award to Henry Cobb, founding partner of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and the Fazlur R. Khan Lifetime Achievement Medal to Clyde Baker, senior principal engineer at AECOM.

This had been a big year for 42-year-old Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. He has been the focus of a special design charrette at Rome's Maxxi Museum and then awarded the prestigious commission for the Serpentine Pavilion in London. Now he been awarded the 2013 Marcus Prize. The prize awarded by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Architecture and supported but the Marcus Corporation Foundation is meant to recognize an architect "on a trajectory to greatness."
The jury, on which I served along with SOM partner Brian Lee, IIT Chair Donna Robertson, Milwaukee Dean Robert Greenstreet, architect Mo Zell, and David Marcus of Marcus Investments, spent a day reviewing nearly twenty portfolios of young and emerging firms from around the world.
The bi-annual award, which has a generous international perspective, has in recent years been awarded to Diébédo Francis Kéré, Kéré Architecture (2012), Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena (2010), Frank Barkow (2007), and MVRDV's Winny Moss (2005). The winner is awarded $100,000 and asked to return to the Milwaukee architecture school and run a design studio with selected students.
It might be argued that Fujimoto is not really an emerging architect, but one who has arrived after receiving the Serpentine commission and there were many very strong candidates who equally deserved the prize, but the jury believed the Japanese architect would bring the freshest perspective to the University student body and the city of Milwaukee where he will engage in public workshops and lectures.
Both the University and the Marcus Foundation should be congratulated for creating and running this important prize.

The AIA Gold Medal Award is the highest honor an architect can receive from the American Institute of Architects. Until now, the award could only be presented to individual architects, but the AIA has just announced that as of January 1, 2014 this prestigious award will be open to an individual or two individuals who have equally collaborated on the design and execution of one distinguished architectural body of work that makes a lasting statement on the theory and practice of architecture.
The revision was prompted by the recent controversial campaign, led by a group of passionate young women architects, to retroactively confer the Pritzker Architecture Prize to Denise Scott Brown. Twenty-two years ago the architect was excluded from the award when it was granted to her husband and equal partner, Robert Venturi, in 1999. The Pritzker jury has refused to revisit it’s decision, denying Denise Scott Brown the award.
In reference to the AIA's recent revisions to the criteria for the Gold Medal Award, AIA President, Mickey Jacob said in a press release, “This is an idea that has been percolating for several years and we feel that the decision to make this important and historic change better reflects the changing nature of architectural practice that has become increasingly more collaborative. We took a careful, measured approach to the implications that this decision will have on the award itself and we are confident that this is a positive change for the architecture profession going forward.”
In the past the AIA Gold Medal has been bestowed upon world-renowned architects such as Louis Sullivan (1944), Frank Gehry (1999), Steven Holl (2012), and this year, to Thom Mayne. This year's Gold Medalist has been recognized for his outstanding designs for projects such as 41 Cooper Square in New York City, The San Francisco Federal Building, and the Giant Group Campus in Shanghai. So far, however, a woman has yet to receive the distinction.

The AIA Technology in Architectural Practice (TAP), in association with BIM Forum, The Construction Owners Association of America (COAA), and the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) have announced the winners of the 9th Annual Building Information Modeling (BIM) Awards which recognize the firms who best utilize BIM technology. Out of 16 submissions the jury selected two winners and three honorable mentions.
CO Architects took home the "Stellar architecture using BIM" prize for their work on the Health Sciences Education Building, Phoenix Biomedical Campus (pictured above). According to a press release the project showed "an exceptional understanding of universal BIM usage, team integration, and requirements for successful implementation from programming to as built."
Fentress Architects and Mortensen Construction were recognized for the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center in Denver and were awarded the "Delivery Process Innovation" prize. According to the press release the project exhibited "impressive statements of advanced levels of detailing in BIM, coordination, and cooperation."
Honorable mentions were given to The Miller Hull Partnership for their design of the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry in Seattle, Collins Woerman and GLY Construction for the Puyallup Medical Center, Group Health Cooperative in Washington, and the University of Cincinnati their curriculum deveopment program titled "Building Relationships, University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning."
The jury comprised of RK Stewart, the 2007 AIA president and current chairman of National Institute of Building Sciences board of directors; Harry McKinney, virtual design construction manager at Clancy & Theys Construction Co.; Tom Sawyer, senior editor at Engineering News-Record; Dennis Shelden, chief technology officer at Gehry Technologies; and Eric Teicholz, president and CEO at Graphic Systems.

Today, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) revealed its 2013 Honors recipients. The Honors acknowledge individuals and organizations for their lifetime successes and notable contributions to the landscape architecture profession. The process is straightforward – ASLA members submit nominations to be reviewed by the Executive Committee and forwarded to the Board of Trustees. This year, the awards will be presented in Boston during the ASLA Annual Meeting & EXPO, November 15-18, 2013.
Warren T. Byrd Jr., FASLA, is the 2013 recipient of the ASLA Medal, the Society’s highest award for a landscape architect who has made a distinctive and lasting impression on public and environmental wellbeing. Byrd, who has taught full-time at the University of Virginia for 26 years, has served for seven years as chair of the landscape department. His firm, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, has won over 70 national and regional awards.
Stuart O. Dawson, FASLA, is the 2013 recipient of the ASLA Design Metal, which recognizes an individual landscape architect who has continually produced an outstanding body of design work for a minimum of ten years. Dawson, founding principal at Sasaki in Watertown, Massachusetts, has practiced for more than 50 years. He received the ASLA Medal in 1999 and has been involved with numerous award-winning endeavors such as the Charleston Waterfront Park, which won the 2007 Landmark Award.
Reed Hilderbrand is the 2013 recipient of the Landscape Architecture Firm Award, the highest award ASLA presents to a landscape architecture firm that has created an exceptional body of work and has influenced the landscape architecture profession. Since 1997, Reed Hilderbrand, comprised of Doug Reed, Gary Hilderbrand, and colleagues, has been acknowledged for its craftsmanship and innovative use of plants. The firm’s projects include residences, parks and cultural institutions. Hilderbrand has acquired 12 ASLA awards within the last decade.
Additional honors include:
Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal: Max Z. Conrad, FASLA
LaGasse Medal – Landscape Architect: Stuart Weinreb
LaGasse Medal – Non-Landscape Architect: Katherine F. Abbott
Olmsted Medal: Renata von Tscharner
Medal of Excellence: Shlomo Aronson
Community Service Award: Nicholas T. Dines, FASLA

Tomorrow night SMPS-NY (Society for Marketing Professional Services) invites you to their Annual Awards Gala where they will proudly honor the outstanding achievements of members of the architecture, engineering, and construction industries by announcing the winners of the 2013 Communications & Industry Leadership Awards. This year a group of jurors, including Molly Heintz, Contributing Editor at The Architect's Newspaper, carefully sorted through 200 entries and selected six winners. This years winners include SBLM Architects for their Brand Identity, Hausman for their extraordinary Event/Holiday Piece, Perkins+ Will for their Marketing Campaign, and Dattner Architects for their website. Eric Schlau, Marketing Coordinator at MBI Group was the recipient of the Mary Findlen Professional Grant and Patricia Neumann, CPSM was awarded the Industry Leadership Award. The festive gala, which will be held at Providence, a spacious and elegant event-venue located near Columbus Circle, will feature a cocktail, beer and wine reception as well as a sit down dinner.